Faster internet service to help MU researchers

MU Chief Information Officer Gary Allen talks at MU’s Cyberinfrastructure Day of the new high speed internet server, Internet2.

Credit Vilma Obando / KBIA

MU researchers are now hooked into a faster internet connection to support their new cyberinfrastructure project.

Internet2 is a secured network used in a few universities, research corporations and government agencies around the country. The university announced the new service today as a part of Cyberinfrastructure Day.

MU Chief Information Officer Gary Allen said this resource is very scarce but it has its advantages.

“What it gives Mizzou is an advantage to be interacting with companies for which these massive data transfers are going to be part and partial of their operational environment,” Allen said.

The 100-gigabite internet speed allows researchers to transfer files that typically would take days or weeks in a matter of seconds and minutes. Internet2 is about 100 times faster than the Google Fiber server in Kansas City.

Prasad Calyam, assistant professor in the computer science department at MU, said Internet2 will take away the barriers that make the transportation of information slower.

“So we are able to take off all friction and actually changing networks fasters. We can have people have policies that can be implemented faster in the infrastructure. We can scale up and down the infrastructure faster,” Calyam said.

The new cyberinfrastracture aims to create a model for advancing multidisciplinary collaboration through research and education communities. MU health researchers say these resources will help with their current project of better detecting, diagnosing and treating autism.